Oral Cancer Detected By Saliva Based Tests

There was a research conducted by the American Association for Dental Research and they said that it would be possible to diagnose the oral cancer and the Sjogren’s syndrome, which is an autoimmune disease that presents itself with the symptoms of dry eyes, dry mouth and rheumatoid arthritis, would soon be able to be diagnosed with the saliva based tests.

The researchers said that if they are able to detect the cancer at an early age, for example a cancer detected at stage 2 rather than stage 4 can increase the survival rate of an individual to about 5 years. It not only would increase the survival rate, but would also provide an individual with a much improved quality of life.

There were about 350 individuals whose saliva samples were tested, who were suffering from the oral cancer and healthy individuals. It was found that the seven messenger RNAs that are used to develop proteins were increased in the individuals who were suffering from oral cancer.
It was on these findings that the researchers were able to develop a test that was fairly accurate in detecting oral cancer.

It was also stated that the tests would be very useful to screen the individuals who are at risk of developing oral cancer, smokers and alcohol drinkers and individuals who are above the age of 45 years.

The researchers found that the saliva of the healthy individuals could be differentiated from the individuals suffering from Sjogren’s syndrome due to the presence of varying concentrations of proteins.

It was also stated that this test would allow the physicians to diagnose the patients more easily, allow them observe as to what happens to the salivary gland of patients suffering from Sjogren’s syndrome, as well as to develop treatment to control the disease.

In order to diagnose the Sjogren’s syndrome, it requires biopsy of the salivary gland and that has to be sometimes repeated. The researchers have been hoping that there could be a way that Sjogren’s syndrome be diagnosed in a non-invasive way and this can be possible now.

The researchers used different tests to measure the protein profiles in saliva from the normal individuals and 41 individuals suffering from primary Sjogren’s syndrome.

The results showed that the inflammatory proteins that were about eight, have increased about two folds or higher in the saliva of the patients, while other two proteins were decreased. The researchers believe that nourishing these proteins in the artificial saliva will help to treat the symptoms of dry mouth more effectively.

[tags]oral cancer,diseases and conditions,health care,sjogren’s syndrome[/tags]


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